Amendments on November ballot

When the polls open on Nov. 4, Missourians will be voting for more than just candidates and political parties. The four Constitutional amendments on the ballot range from allowing prior evidence to be admissible in criminal cases to how Missouri will evaluate their teachers, from voting methods to how a governor handles state revenue and debt.

Amendment 2

Allows relevant evidence of prior criminal acts to be admissible for crimes of a sexual nature involving a victim under the age of 18. If more resources are needed to defend increased prosecutions additional costs to governmental entities could be at least $1.4 million annually, otherwise the fiscal impact is expected to be limited.

If passed, the measure will have no impact on taxes.

Amendment 3

Requires teacher evaluations to be based on standards of performance, requires teachers to be terminated, retained, demoted, promoted and paid using student performance data as part of evaluation, requires teachers to enter contracts for three years or less for public school districts and prohibits teachers from organizing or collectively bargain in regards to the design of the teacher evaluation system. Decisions by school districts regarding provisions allowed or required by this proposal and their implementation will influence the potential costs or savings impacting each district.

If passed, the measure will have no impact on taxes.

Amendment 6

Permits in-person or by mail voting six business days prior to and including the Wednesday before general elections, granted the legislature and governor allocate the proper funds to support the increased costs of such voting. Local election authorities estimated higher reimbursable costs per election. Those costs will depend on the compensation, staffing and planning decisions of election authorities with the total costs being unknown.

If passed, the measure will have no impact on taxes.

Amendment 10

Requires the governor to pay the public debt, to prohibit the governor from relying on revenue from legislation not yet passed when proposing a budget, and to provide a legislative check on the governor’s decisions to restrict funding for education and other state services. State governmental entities expect no direct costs or savings. Local governmental entities expect an unknown fiscal impact.